We received news
of a Call for Papers for the 6th Conference of Juris Diversitas (“Law, Roots
& Space”), to be hosted in South Africa from 15-17 April 2019. Here the
Call:

The Theme:

A couple of lawyers’ old friends: ‘Sources’ and
‘Jurisdictions’. In their parlance, these notions are often associated to
modern, ‘positive’ law.

The idea of ‘legal formants’ has been
introduced to complete the picture, flexibilising it, making it more accurate,
nuanced, realistic; an idea associated to comparative, socio-legal,
anthropologic studies.

With ‘Roots’ and ‘space’ geographers,
historians, political scientists get involved. These are certainly less
frequent notions in legal circles: we may still wish to make friends with them,
to enrich our perception of legal phenomena.

‘Roots’
is often associated to history of law and related discourses – if legal
formants may complete a picture, legal roots do complete the movie, so to
speak.

‘Space’:
an open notion, perhaps a non-notion in modern legal discourse, generic enough
to include every spatial dimension of legal phenomena: dissemination of movie theatres
and other forms of diffusion of the various show-biz products could be the
appropriate metaphor here, including space law and virtual property.

A legal discourse that goes beyond the
checkboards, or the series of juxtaposed swimming pools – Tetris-style –
containing water from their respective individual sources, produced by modern,
Westphalian conceptions of the law. It goes, instead, to normative forces
producing their effects without a precise geographic boundary: like radio
stations, magnetic or gravitational fields. Or like intricate sets of rivers,
lakes, canals, ponds, infiltrated wetlands, oceans, weather, all contributing
to a locally diversified but still unitary eco-system and bio-sphere of water,
landscape, vegetation, fauna.

A discourse on normative forces and the
fuzziness of their historic and geographic reach.

Submissions:

Panel proposals and interdisciplinary
presentations are strongly encouraged, as is the participation of doctoral
students and scholars from outside of the discipline of law. While parallel
sessions featuring three presentations of twenty-minute each will be the
pattern, we welcome creative arrangements.

Panel Proposals of circa 1000 words and a short
biography (in English or in French) should be submitted electronicallyby 30September 2018. You will be informed of the outcome by the end of
October 2018. Click here https://goo.gl/forms/JnRqHQOHFnTuBz5w2to submit panel proposal.

Individual Proposals of circa 500 words and a
short biography (in English or in French) should be submitted electronically by 30November 2018. You will be informed of the outcome by the
end of December 2018. Click here https://goo.gl/forms/Wutow8SR4CqTDDhh2to submit
individual proposal.

Registration Fees:

General:

€ 200 or € 125 for Juris Diversitas members paid up for 2018.

Special rate for young scholars under the
age of thirty coming the first time: €
150 or € 75 for Juris
Diversitas members paid up for 2018.

Note that fees do not cover
travel, accommodation, or the conference dinner (€ 30).

Scholars from Africa:

ZAR 1,800 or ZAR1,500 for Juris
Diversitas members paid up for 2018.

Note that fees do not cover
travel, accommodation, or the conference dinner (ZAR 300).

Additional Information:

Information regarding accommodation options,
travel, other conferences in South Africa, payment methods, etc. will be
provided after participants have been notified of the outcome of their
proposals.

The town Potchefstroom or Potch (as most people
call it) is a University town of about 128,253 people, about 120km or 75miles
to the south-west of Johannesburg. The greater Potch (including all the
suburbs) consists of 676,004 people. 70% of the population's first language is
Afrikaans but almost everyone speaks English as a second language.

It is the oldest town in the old Transvaal
Province and has a rich history dating back to 1838. The town was established
in 1838 by a group of Voortrekkers led by Andries Hendrik Potgieter. The name
was derived from POT (gieter), the Voortrekker leader, CHEF (the leader,
referring to Potgieter), and STROOM (the Mooi River). Another version is that
the POT comes from pieces of pots left behind by nomadic peoples which were
later found by the first residents of Potch.

Until 1960 it was the capital of the old South
African Republic of which the first president, Marthinus Wessel Pretorious, was
sworn in at Potchefstroom.

Potchefstroom was the first town north of the
Vaal River. The town was originally built on the position of the present
"Oude Dorp". After the flood in 1840, it was decided that
Potchefstroom would be developed one hour horse-ride south from "Oude
Dorp" next to the Mooiriver.

The first Government Gazette was printed and
published in Potchefstroom. The Dutch Reformed Church in the Transvaal (at that
time) was founded in Potchefstroom in 1842 and since 1905 the town has been the
theological seminary of the Gereformeerde Kerk.

People like Totius who translated the Bible
from Dutch to Afrikaans, also worked here and made their irreplaceable
contribution to the Afrikaans language and culture.

This city on the banks of the Mooiriver, with
its 24 declared national monuments, has a rich history. A noteworthy fact is
that the first shots of the First War of Independence were fired in
Potchefstroom in 1880 and that the town also played a prominent role during the
guerilla phase of the Anglo Boer War (1899 -1902).

Potchefstroom boasts many "firsts".
It includes the following:

the "Vierkleur" was
designed and hoisted here for the first time;

the first constitution of the
"South African Republic" was drafted here;

the first coat of arms of the
Republic was designed here;

the first church building in
Transvaal was erected here;

Potchefstroom was the first
town in the Transvaal to obtain municipal management; and

the first "Staats
Courant" (Government Gazette) was printed here and the first public
press in Transvaal was established here.

The North-West University (Potchefstroom
Campus) dominates the town which also boasts a permanent military base. Potch
has for many years produced top sportsmen and women. Potch is also known as the
"Home of Sport in the North West Province" with many provincial
federations based locally. The town has already become
"home-away-from-home" to many international athletes participating in
many different sport codes.

Potch is popular for many reasons including
being a university town with much to offer. It has very few industries and thus
clean air and also a low crime rate. It has a good climate (especially during
the cold northern hemisphere winters when it is our summer) and at 1400m
altitude it offers a good balance between Altitude and Quality training.

The NWU officially came into being on 1 January
2004 as part of the South African government’s plan to transform higher education.
In our case, this saw a historically white university and a historically black
university merging to create a new university where South Africans from all
walks of life have come together. The Potch campus' history dates back from
1869. For more information on the historical development of the Potch campus,
see http://www.nwu.ac.za/content/history-potchefstroom-campus-potchefstroom-campus-nwu.

In 2018, almost 70 000 students are registered
at the NWU, making it the second largest university in the country. Almost 3000
students are enrolled at the Faculty of Law.